zatannacomic's reviews
109 reviews

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole

adventurous medium-paced

4.0

They're Going to Love You by Meg Howrey

emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.25

While this book did not reinvent the wheel, it was very good. I like reading the exploration of family dynamics and the feeling of not fitting anywhere.  The importance to ballet for all characters involved is also interesting, it something that keeps connecting them. There are some absolutely fantastic lines in this book that are going to stay with me for a while. 

Is dit een mens by Primo Levi

informative sad medium-paced

I don’t think I can rate and review this book. 

The experiences written about in this are so sad and still so important to read about. 

Zo'n leuke leeftijd by Kiley Reid

emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book really was so addictive to read. I read the last half in one evening, because I had to know how it ended. It read quickly, it has lovely characters and a main character i really understood and connected with. 

The story was so impressively built. It starts off fine and then suddenly it throws you into its message and it hits you in the face.

The moment you realise its two white people thinking that they are saving a black woman from each other, while they are the problem, the whole book just looks different.

. 

Definitely a big recommendation and I hate that it stayed on my TBR for so long. I should have read this sooner. 

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

I think this story tries to show two different lives, each with a connecting feeling of not have closure from something in the past. Both characters in this book are at their core unhappy. 

Honestly the Mrs Dalloway parts were not the sections of the book I cared about. They felt really drawn out, which makes sense considering the stream of consciousness style of writing. I kind of missed a bit of depth or action going on. I had hoped to see more of the party, its guests and like the gossip or conversations that came out of that (

which did happen, but only in the last 20% of the book

). 

Now the part I loved reading were about Septimus and Rezia. They were interesting, full of emotion and depth. It was very sad to see this character suffer while not being helped correctly. I had probably liked a book on these characters alone better. 

How to Be Invisible by Kate Bush

medium-paced

4.75

Kate Bush is fantastic. I love her music. It's so creative and she's not afraid to experiment and make her music loud or weird. On top of that she is an amazing lyricist. This became even more clear after reading and analyzing some songs. There are clever references and poetic lines in her songs, which you don't even notice until you take the time to read the lyrics.

Broken April by Ismail Kadare

sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.25

This book started off interesting, but it felt like it never got off its feet. The whole book felt like the introduction to the story. There was little that made the characters really interesting. I liked the explanation about the way society was built, but sadly it didn't make up for the fact that absolutely nothing happened. 

I get that this book was supposed to show how lives get ruined by these laws, but I still want to find a story or something to care about and that was not there for me. 

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak

hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.5

Elif Shafaks writing always touches my soul. No matter what she writes about, it just hits me somewhere in my being. This was once again the case. In these short pages she managed to articulate thoughts and views I have better than I ever could.

Vaders en zonen by Ivan Turgenev

slow-paced

3.75

This was an insanely slow book to read. While I enjoyed about 75% of the story, the other 25% really dragged along, mostly in the middle of the book. This book is about generations and their differences, but I felt like it tiptoed around the subject sometimes. I found it lacked a bigger story line or some event that had an impact on the characters. There were a lot of conversations between people, whose names I always forgot. That being said, I did like these conversations and the love story. 

Sex and Lies by Leïla Slimani

hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

4.25

This was a meaningful book. I'm always trying to learn more about feminism, the way people treat each other and how life influences people, specifically women. So this book sounded like a perfect book for me to read. And it was!

 The writing was easy to understand, which I'm happy for, since non-fiction writing can get complicated quickly. The different perspectives really helped getting a full view of how women are treated in Morocco, but also their thoughts and opinions. It's important to me to diversify my reading and broaden my own knowledge. This book was one of the ways to do this. It treats the topic with respect and the author also lets her thoughts shine through.